Sarah Boseley's global health blog + GlaxoSmithKline | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health+business/glaxosmithkline
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GSK's Andrew Witty on the future of pharma collaboration to help poor countrieshttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2012/jan/31/infectiousdiseases-pharmaceuticals-industry
For the last year, 13 drug company CEOs have been jointly working out ways to do more for customers in the developing world. Can it be for real? GSK's boss says there is more to come<p>Just before the all-singing, all-dancing launch of the<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jan/30/drug-companies-join-tropical-diseases"> big initiative to control or eliminate 10 neglected diseases</a> – starring 13 CEOs from Big Pharma, the WHO's director general, Margaret Chan, and Bill Gates – I grabbed a few words with Sir Andrew Witty, head of GlaxoSmithKline, who co-chaired the negotiations over the past year with Gates.</p><p>I was keen to know who was responsible for getting 13 CEOs, or as someone described it to me, 13 huge egos, together round the table. Was it Gates? Was it Chan? Was it Witty? Diplomatically, everybody said it was a combination of all of them. So I asked Witty to expand on this new spirit of collaboration among billion-dollar companies that used to fight tooth and nail.</p><p><br />We basically decided a little over a year ago that the NTDs [neglected tropical diseases] was an area where we could make some impact, get some traction.</p><p>The WHO 2020 goals gave us a focus to put some hard expectations in place: which diseasses, by when? How are we going to get this done?</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2012/jan/31/infectiousdiseases-pharmaceuticals-industry">Continue reading...</a>Infectious diseasesPharmaceuticals industryGlaxoSmithKlineBill and Melinda Gates FoundationTue, 31 Jan 2012 13:40:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2012/jan/31/infectiousdiseases-pharmaceuticals-industryMartin Godwin/GuardianAndrew Witty, CEO, Glaxo Smith Kline with Aduwe Nosiante on a visit to Katine, Uganda Photograph: Martin GodwinSarah Boseley2012-01-31T13:40:00ZGlaxo to reinvest £3.5 million of Africa profits in healthcarehttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2011/may/24/glaxosmithkline-pharmaceuticals-industry
Andrew Witty, CEO of the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, is making good on his promise to reinvest 20% of the corporation's profits from LDCs back into African healthcare. It's a small pot of gold, but growing. Should other big companies that are active in Africa follow suit?<p>What is &pound;3.5 million to a corporation the size of drug giant GlaxoSmithKline? Peanuts, undoubtedly. What is &pound;3.5 million spent on healthcare workers in Africa? It won't end the shortage, but in fact, it's a considerable sum.</p><p>Andrew Witty, CEO of Glaxo, promised a couple of years ago that his company would reinvest 20% of profits made in the LDCs (least developed countries) back into those countries, to support and improve healthcare. It was part of a raft of measures designed to re-position GSK not only as a commercial leader in the rich world but as a company with a philanthropic core and a particular concern for the developing nations of Africa.<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/13/glaxo-smith-kline-cheap-medicine"> This is how we reported Witty's announcement at the time. </a></p><p><br />From the very first, I said this is a very small amount of money. We have never intended for people to see this as anything other than a small amount of money. But it does go a lot further in these countries and it is a year on year commitment... If you look at the area under the curve, this is ultimately going to be quite a lot of money and it is sustainable. This is not [a case of] did Andrew wake up in the morning and feel we ought to give a donation.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2011/may/24/glaxosmithkline-pharmaceuticals-industry">Continue reading...</a>GlaxoSmithKlinePharmaceuticals industryAfricaTue, 24 May 2011 06:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2011/may/24/glaxosmithkline-pharmaceuticals-industryMartin Godwin/GuardianAndrew Witty, CEO, Glaxo Smith Kline with Aduwe Nosiante on a visit to Katine, Uganda Photograph: Martin GodwinSarah Boseley2011-05-24T06:00:00ZGSK to donate a billion tablets a year for neglected diseaseshttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/oct/14/infectiousdiseases-pharmaceuticals-industry
Today the World Health Organisation will launch its first report on progress in combatting the neglected tropical diseases that undermine the health of the poor and wreck their life chances. GSK will donate drugs costing £12 million a year, but other companies need to do more<p>GlaxoSmithKline will today commit to donating one billion tablets of its drug albendazole every year, to treat children in poor countries whose growth and learning capacity is threatened by intestinal worms.</p><p>It's enough to treat every child in Africa. GSK already gives 600 million tablets for its <a href="http://www.gsk.com/community/filariasis/index.htm">flagship global health programme against lymphatic filiariasis</a> (also known as elephantiasis), but the same drug works against the worms, called technically &quot;soil transmitted helminths&quot;, that cause stunting and worsen anaemia in children who live in some of the poorest communities on earth, where clean water and good sanitation are not available. These children end up missing substantial amounts of schooling and their life chances inevitably worsen.</p><p>I know there is a real appetite amongst my industry colleagues from many companies to play a full part.</p><p>NTDs are a priority for GSK. We believe we can make a very broad contribution... we are relentlessly asking ourselves what else we can do.</p><p><br />Novartis renewed its commitment to donate an unlimited supply of multidrug therapy and loose clofazimine for leprosy and its complications.</p><p>Sanofi-aventis has agreed to renew its support for the WHO programme against sleeping sickness elimination and support for Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis for the next five years.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/oct/14/infectiousdiseases-pharmaceuticals-industry">Continue reading...</a>Infectious diseasesPharmaceuticals industryGlaxoSmithKlineWorld Health OrganisationWed, 13 Oct 2010 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/oct/14/infectiousdiseases-pharmaceuticals-industryDan ChungAn African child seen in silhouette. Photograph: Dan ChungSarah Boseley2010-10-13T23:01:00ZGlaxoSmithKline may act on vaccine delayhttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/may/13/vaccines-pneumonia
Giant pharma company GlaxoSmithKline is having high-level internal discussions as a result of the story on this blog two days ago, which pointed out that babies in most of Africa would not get their vaccine against pneumococcal disease until 2012<p>High-level internal discussions are going on at giant drug company GlaxoSmithKline as a result of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/may/11/vaccines-infant-mortality">story on this blog two days ago</a>, which pointed out that babies in most of Africa would not get their vaccine against pneumococcal disease until 2012.</p><p>The vaccine, called Synflorix, protects against pneumonia, the leading cause of infant deaths, and other killer infections including meningitis. In March, there was a big triumphal announcement from <a href="http://www.gavialliance.org/">Gavi (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation)</a>, which had done a deal with GSK and Pfizer to supply 30 million doses each of vaccine every year, potentially saving millions of lives. The deal was a triumph for the <a href="http://www.vaccineamc.org/index.html">Advance Market Commitment (AMC)</a>, a new financing mechanism dreamed up by donor nations including the UK designed to encourage pharma to produce vaccines for poor countries.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/may/13/vaccines-pneumonia">Continue reading...</a>Vaccines and immunisationGlaxoSmithKlinePharmaceuticals industryGlobal developmentWorld newsSocietyThu, 13 May 2010 11:04:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/may/13/vaccines-pneumoniaSANG TAN/APPhotograph: Sang Tan/APSarah Boseley2010-05-13T11:04:44ZWelcome to the new global health bloghttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/jan/25/blog-launch
<p>Last week <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jan/20/glaxo-malaria-drugs-public-domain">I went to see Andrew Witty</a>, boss of GlaxoSmithKline, second biggest drug company in the world. As I walked past the guards on the gate and had my photo taken by a concealed camera for a pass at reception, I couldn't help remembering the last time I entered the building, to interview Witty's predecessor, Jean-Pierre Garnier. Same glass fortress. But what a difference seven years has made.</p><p>Back in 2003, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/feb/18/aids.sarahboseley11">Garnier sat in his office at the top of the GSK tower</a> at a desk the size of a boardroom, with a vast sky behind his back. I asked him what he was going to do to help women like Grace Mathanga, HIV positive and living in Malawi, get the drugs his company made to keep herself alive. I'm going to paraphrase here, but the gist of the answer (<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/saving-grace">in our supplement Saving Grace</a>) was that if donor governments stumped up enough money to buy his drugs for Africa, he'd give them a good price.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/jan/25/blog-launch">Continue reading...</a>GlaxoSmithKlineHealthWorld newsSocietyPharmaceuticals industryMon, 25 Jan 2010 11:31:52 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/jan/25/blog-launchMartin Godwin/GuardianAndrew Witty, CEO, Glaxo Smith Kline with Aduwe Nosiante on a visit to Katine, Uganda. Photograph: Martin GodwinMartin Godwin/GuardianAndrew Witty, CEO, Glaxo Smith Kline with Aduwe Nosiante on a visit to Katine, Uganda
Photograph: Martin GodwinSarah Boseley2010-01-25T11:31:52Z